Thief The Dark Project/The Metal Age, Hiding & The Inevitability of Radical Action
Thief: The Dark Project, The Metal Age, Hiding & The Inevitability of Radical Action
CW: Spoilers for Thief: The Dark Project and The Metal Age
aHonestly, I think the Thief games were just something that I played precisely at the right place and at the right time (very early adolescence) but they were the kind of thing that, if you played them, you can certainly see the appeal of how they would resonate with an alienated teenager. Just an entire game where you're embarking on this fantasy of playing as this person who stalks the shadows, does all of these things without being suspecting them, or otherwise just spending his entire time messing with people, and really just this game about encapsulating the feelings of being "unseen" or of someone who "does not wish to be seen." which is like yeah, that was me back in the day, honestly. It's weird but there's something about these games that really just captured that sort of sense of alienation that I had, and, as a teenager, stuff like this becomes kind of secretive, because playing these games felt like a process of trying to reconcile with those feelings.
Garrett just really sticks out to me as a fascinating character and I think the best way of describing him is that he's snarly, cynical, someone who expresses emotions more underlyingly and tends to translate more in terms of actions and what he does compared to what he explicitly expresses. From the get-go we understand that he's anti-authoritarian, doesn't really like being imposed on, also seems to really dislike and has a contempt for the rich - to the point where his primary motivation for thievery (aside from the fact that it pays the rent) is mainly just because of the challenge involved with it. One things leads onto the other and suddenly he's roped into a string of conspiracies, has to deal with the ramifications of said conspiracies, and eventually it culminates in him having to save the world, mainly because he's just thrust into it and is the only person who can do it. Not that Garrett seems like he wants to do it, more just that he's eventually pushed into circumstances where he feels like he HAS to do it, but it's that sort of futility to imposition that I find kind of fascinating, honestly.
But yeah, Garrett himself is also just such a mischievous character - which also really translates in terms of the gameplay and what you can do. In fact, I actually think you can play this game in an opposite way of what's intended, where instead of being a master sneak, you can just go around exploiting guard AI and the stupidity of people in order to get their way. What I also find kind of interesting is just how Garrett really does seem to parallel the villains he's ultimately meant to fight, in that they broadly tend to be rather coercive, treacherous and deceitful - and also how these very large events can seemingly sneak their way under the surface. Both Garrett's thievery and the nature of the often apocalyptic conspiracies share this sort of aspect to them, and it all seems to lead towards things that would appear sudden and inexplicable to outsiders, but to you, you have a deep understanding and a knowledge of what's going on - often thrusting you into these events in the first place. I can't help but think of Garrett as someone who just has an adolescent streak running with him. Literally the opening scene of The Dark Project has a teenaged Garrett stealing the wallet of one of the Keepers, which then causes the Keepers to take interest in him, in order to expand on his sneaking skills. The Keepers, as they say, "it's not an easy thing to see a Keeper, especially one who does not wish to be seen." and, for some reason, they always do seem to keep an eye on Garrett, despite his efforts to be totally discrete with what he's doing.
The writing of these games is so seamless that such a conclusion does seem possible. In Thief: The Dark Project, you go from robbing some guy's manor, then eventually you find your fence has been shacked up in a prison, he then dies and you get hinted on into this heist where you steal the so-called 'Horn of Quintus' from a tomb, which he then spends the money on to buy lockpicks that go for a steep price to continue with more thieving. However, in the background, people start to pick up on rumours a hearsay of what Garrett has been doing, his independent status as a thief, and likewise it catches the attention of people who are both interested in his services yet also a lot of notoriety from people who want to take him down. What's so fascinating about this game is the modular way it's built up - each level is very distinctive, yet each level has various details about the game's world, the underlying politics, various characters and factions and so many other different details. The second level establishes the Hammerites as this ruthless force who have strict rules and don't take kindly to thieves or really criminals of any kind, and adopt a religious slant to their metal work and machinery. Then there's the Pagans, who are way more into magic and nature and form a rivalry with the Hammers - they're way less focused on order, way more focused on chaos.
The rest of the game revolves around this one heist of an eccentric old man's manor, that eventually culminates in a string of heists that take up the rest of the game. You walk into this manor and it's filled with all sorts of strange things, esoteric architecture, and just these design layouts that look impossible, seeming like way more of a maze than a place you'd reasonable expect someone to live in. Vegetation grows in places you wouldn't expect it to, and a lot of the rooms are set up, essentially, just to screw with you. Turns out, the person who ordered the heist on this manor was the same old man who just wanted to test your skills out, and it all culminates in the heist of this artefact called "The Eye" that turns out to be way harder to obtain than you'd first expect, but then the pay for this artefact is enough for Garrett to essentially retire early and take it easy for the rest of his life (uh yeah, good luck, lol.). Nothing turns out as planned, but I love how so much of the game has an unassuming quality to its storytelling where it does sneak underlying details underneath the surface - so it does culminate rather seamlessly.
I do love the look and the feel of this game. Three things that I'd like to point out about this game are the lighting, sound design and the cutscenes that I think add so much texture to this game. Lighting and sound really play a key part in the stealth, but what I also find interesting is just the effort put into the sound design where you can practically track people down just from hearing their footsteps becoming louder and louder, then quieter and quieter. You hide in the shadows but there's also something fascinating about hiding in the shadows and peering off into the brightly lit distance where nobody suspects a thing. The cutscenes (designed by Daniel Thron) are fascinating because they kind of feel like an animated oil painting of sorts which give it a distinctive look, and also especially with the rotoscoping involving live actors who are silhouetted over, but I also love the mood and the brooding atmosphere of these cutscenes. Although then most of the cutscenes are performed with panning and zooming across sepia images i.e. predominantly in the game's briefings where it tends to give you a rundown of the place you'll be robbing, or where it's composed almost like a comic book with quick, successive, to-the-point actions.
The rest of the game has quite a creepy atmosphere that can often bounce off-and-on again into being an outright horror game at points, but then there's something about walking around and picking up on creeping footsteps and sticking to the shadows, that always did give off a bit of a spooky vibe. It's about sneaking and unsuspecting details, but I also do think it give the game its texture honestly. Even stupid guards can be quite terrifying because, even though they're kind of stupid and often played off as comic, they can be a ruthless force against you if you're not careful in avoiding them. That's what really sticks out, but I also do love how the immersive sim gameplay grants a lot of agency in terms of what Garrett can do and how he can approach various objectives. The non-linear maps give a lot to this, and I think it's really a game where it's quite easy just to get really lost and immersed in the level design - like they really do a lot in terms of fleshing out the areas, and making them feel somewhat real to you.
But yeah, I find interesting is the whole contrast between prophecy and very deliberate actions taken by Garrett that all seems to just loop back around the world that he lives in. Did Garrett decide to do what he eventually does out of his own agency, or is he in some way manipulated into doing it? Either way, I think the inevitable truth is that Garrett eventually has to act in some way on these issues - even if said process is deeply harrowing, painful, seems like something he shouldn't go through, and where a lot of it clashes with his own self-interesting, and I guess the juxtaposition there is what really fascinates me about these games. In some way, Garrett is someone who constantly wants to take control of things whatever way he can - yet at the same time it's also something where you suspect that there's something else going on.
Thief II: The Metal Age is such a fascinating contrast, mainly in terms of how the political environment flips and it does kind of loop back into the ending of the original game. This is the beginning of the Metal Age - new technological advancements, but at the same time where environmental decay abounds and where more and more people seem alienated from what the world is becoming. Garrett starts stealing at the beginning of this game mainly as a favour for his friend and the classic excuse to "pay his rent" but then you are also kept in the loop somewhat with what's going on. The first level has a small detail of a gear hidden away and propped up as a religious shrine, then the second level becomes more unmistakable as people start discussing about what's going on in explicit detail, suddenly you find all this new technology locked away in warehouses, audio recordings, cameras that you can view through your new mechanical eye and so forth. Also potions are introduced in this for some reason that can reduce the effects of gravity and make you invisible and so forth.
What I find interesting about The Metal Age just comes from the twist mid-way through the game where it brings more and more of the Mechanists into play, and just the deep extent of how evil they are, and then it turns out that you team up with the Pagans (the villains from the first game) in order to bring them down. After all, it kind of makes sense, both of you hate the Mechanists, and both of your anger towards each other does not supersede said hatred and contempt for the Mechanists. There's an interesting scene about mid-way through the game where you team up with Viktoria (aka. that woman who stole your eye) and Viktoria basically does this thing where you just lets all this anger out of her system, all this contempt against you, then sort of realises just how futile those sorts of feelings are in the final gist of things. Viktoria is way more expressive, but in effect it also winds up mirroring a lot of underlying feelings you'd expect Garrett would have in the first place. I sure as hell don't forget how angry I was when she ripped me eye out of my socket for sure.
But yeah, I honestly do think the strongest story aspect of The Metal Age comes from that central relationship between Viktoria and Garrett, and also just the underlying empathy that comes from it where both of them let aside their differences and team up together, and eventually it becomes more and more clear that Garrett weirdly does care for Viktoria and has these underlying feelings for her that are definitely there. The character of Karras is such a megalomaniacal narcissist, and I found it interesting just how capable he is of betrayal. In one part of the game, you overhear this conversation between him and Sheriff Truart where the two discuss using the bodies of lower class citizens in order to turn them into slaves and servants through extremely invasive means, and Truart goes on this tangent about how he's going to "collect vagabonds, street scum, prostitutes - those who will not be missed by anyone of consequence." where Karras discretely records Truart saying that, out of context, in order to blackmail him if things don't go his way.
Karras though, is interesting, because he does kind of feel betrayal in his own way - that of where he imposes all these decisions onto people, and as soon as they go against his will, suddenly he gets emotional and suddenly he expresses these feelings of betrayal against the people who he feels have wronged him. Like yeah, Karras is fundamentally someone who gets off of imposition and gets off of screwing people over, keeping this very esoteric interest about himself and not entirely keeping people in tune with what he's doing. There's something really creepy about the missions where you roam about and you discover cadavers and the various procedures that are performed in order to turn people into servants, and throughout it's described in terms of "stealing someone's personhood, stealing their souls, their identity" and what not, which I thought was just so creepy. Probably way more so than anything in the first game, to be honest, but that's what really sticks out to me, is just the gross invasion with bodily autonomy that then seeks to expand itself out so that it becomes more widespread and accepted, and ultimately where you have no say in what's going on. People just kind of notice the Mechanists but they didn't really want them, it's just the way that the world is changing, in front of their very eyes.
Playing The Metal Age straight after The Dark Project is interesting, because I really feel like the two games form an interesting juxtaposition with each other in terms of their themes. Likewise, I think it also makes a lot of the changes in the world even more noticeable, but I think it really does seem to cover that theme of alienation with a world that undergoes inevitable man-made change, and often times where said forces can be turned out for the worse, and especially with the idea of man imposing on the harmony of nature, and how it does seem to turn into an entirely different apocalyptic conclusion than The Dark Project. Something that also does stick out are the contrast between the nature and magic levels (seemingly shoved into the underground and through portals, e.g. in Trail of Blood for instance), and how the rest of the game has the constant, imposing presence of technology running through it. I mean it's everywhere in this game, and it does definitely have an alienating quality to it with how cold and barren it all seems.
Also have felt like the ending of this comes off as less triumphant than The Dark Project, and instead it just outright feels brooding and melancholic. Garrett, instead of defying prophecy, decides to go all in and wants to be told about what's going to happen to him, what his destiny would be, rather than everything being out of sight. But it's also just an example, I feel, of where a victory comes across as way more pyrrhic to Garrett - where he just feels that a whole lot of what he's done, while he kind of did save the world, came to him at such a great personal cost, and I just sat there thinking like "Oh my god, you know." at it. Weird how a game can make me feel emotional like that, but it's a very interesting contrast to the first game where Garrett walks away smug with the impending Metal Age, and here it just seems like the exact opposite. Although, I really did like how this game has more character development with Garrett where he does mature quite a bit and is a bit more expressive of underlying feelings than he originally was - yet still keeping in line with his character.
"Tell me." - This ending still sends chills down my spine.
What I think really does work about Thief is how it's such a great example of the gameplay weaving so seamlessly into the story, mainly through a skilful balance of genuinely well-made and intriguing cutscenes, but also in terms of the environmental detail, various character conversations, context clues, and the fact that so much of it relates back to its main character Garrett and what he finds out about the world. Does very much feel like you're actively putting together the pieces of a mystery, but that is what's really fascinating about these games, is that they are brimming with detail. But then at the same time they also do kind of tap into a fantasy of mine which is just doing things, enacting radical action and change while you're in the shadows and in the underground, and this whole idea of things operating in the shadows, that go unseen. Nevertheless you do have a significant impact on the world even when so much of what you do goes understated - that's what felt so great about these games, honestly. Everything just clicks together for me with them honestly.
Appendix - More on the Appeal of Stealth Games & Bad Stealth Segments
Yeah, you know what. I guess there's a sort of zodiac sort of thing with what someone's favourite stealth game is. Let's see what else there is, there's Metal Gear, Splinter Cell, Tenchu: Stealth Assassins, Dishonoured, Hitman, Sneak King - all games that have predominantly feature stealth as its main selling feature, rather than as auxiliary to it. Technically any game can have stealth elements in them, up to and including Doom and Wolfenstein 3D to a vague extent - except it's also very much clear that it's set up so you literally can not stealth your way through those games. Good stealth games understand the appeal of stealth, offer up a lot of variety, but I think one of the biggest problems (especially with games with tacked on stealth sections) tends to be when it runs on a trial-and-error basis. Funnily enough Wolfenstein 3D was actually an FPS sequel to two stealth games 1981's Castle Wolfenstein and 1984's Return to Castle Wolfenstein - both of which had a top-down look to them.
I love No One Lives Forever, but I remember the stealth segments in that game were quite frustrating because it did run on that trial-and-error sort of logic with stalking down corridors and just being very precise with regards to not getting caught. A lot of parts of that game are just outright impossible to stealth through. Soldier of Fortune II was even worse in this regard, and something about the stealth missions there were just so frustrating, even though they also did plan for it with a "noise meter" that's constantly on you. Something that I think really sticks out is the classic bad level design paradigm of something that makes very intuitive sense to a developers but then proves to be outright frustrating to anyone who is actually trying to play the game, but just zero in the way of experimentation. Everything basically has to be done in this very precise way. Hey, I guess also the Hitman series was like that but it also did have the door open to experiment with various approaches, but yeah, I think eventually you just find yourself playing games in this very specific way that you just know works for you, which I've definitely felt playing stealth games or stealth segments in games. Sometimes stealth can be a bit botched so you wonder if it's meant to be a mechanic there in the first place. Goldeneye, Perfect Dark and the Timesplitters games kind of felt like this to me, because running and gunning just felt more fun and intuitive and the games seldom gave you missions where you had to properly stealth. Still, Chicago: Stealth is a fun mission because it does kind of work like clockwork and also has amazing music to boot, I guess.
Shadow Stealth was very pervasive in Thief but also in the Splinter Cell series, and I suppose what was fun about those games were the level of experimentation you can undertake with how you approach your objectives, although I remember Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory was a bit more linear compared to what Thief had to offer. Thief had such a variety to stealth and I guess that's what I really enjoyed most about those games - is just the variety that you have with being able to mess around, and just to outright break the game at points. Thief was an "immersive sim" which emphasised player choice, but that also literally meant that you could do things like that, and I just kind of loved the whole approach that Thief had. Other games like System Shock 2 (which uses the same engine as Thief) and Deus Ex were also like this, but I think the fact that they felt so involving is what really made them stand out to me. These are games that you can get lost in quite easily, in my view.
[Also, there's a guy out there who owns 3,000 copies of 'Sneak King' i.e. the stealth game revolving around the The King from Burger King, giving Burger King meals to hungry people -
Playing Thief for a long enough period of time will give you an entirely different perspective when, say, you're walking to a store to buy some of that sugar enriched Irn-Bru 1901 or whatever you'd be doing in the middle of the night, but yeah, I'm sort of fascinated by how this game does stealth mechanics so well way more with environmental details than say, having a HUD or a map telling you where certain enemies are and so forth, and this was a game that really just felt like "Here's what's right in front of you." as its central mechanic that I thought was really cool about it. I think also it's often cited as like being "one of the games that actually got stealth right" but I think that's way more just because every step of the way it's just fun and intuitive and when you screwed up, that tended to be your fault more than anything else. Taking agency behind the shadows, free from imposition because nobody suspects what you're doing anyway. Kind of is just what appeals to me about it, honestly.
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